Fake journalist arrested in Benin

A man posing as a reporter of Voice of America, Yakubu Farouk has been arrested by men of the Edo State Police Command.

Nasarawa born Yakubu was arrested by men from the Oba Market Police Division on Tuesday, February 3.

Yakubu it was learnt who was posing as the Niger Delta correspondent of the Hausa service of the Voice of America was apprehended as he tried to swindle N5, 000 from the Chairman of the Hausa community in Edo State, Alhaji Badamasi Saleh.

Yakubi had demanded the sum, Farouk, as payment to interview the leader of the Hausa community in Edo State.

According to the report, Alhaji Badamasi said he became suspicious of Farouk, when he demanded N5,000 after he interview him and asked for and asked for a ride to the Peoples Democratic Party state secretariat, where he had scheduled an interview with a candidate of the party.

After realising that Yakubu was a fake reporter, Alhaji Badamasi drove to the police station instead where the con man was arrested.

“So, on our way to the PDP secretariat, I called the reporter covering Niger Delta, Lamid Abubakar, who told me to get him (Farouk) arrested and hand him over to the police because he was not a VOA employee. That was exactly what I did because I have never come across any journalist interviewing and demanding money from me,” Alhaji Badamasi said.

35-year-old Yakubu who is a 2006 graduate of Mass Communication, from the Benue State Polytechnic, said he was a former reporter of a newspaper in Kaduna, Nigerian Democrat, but was sacked for allegedly embezzling an advert payment to the tune of N300, 000.

“Actually, I came as a journalist and they discovered that I was not working with the medium I claimed to be working with. I have not really duped anybody; this is the first man I spoke with and I was caught,” Yakubu said.

The suspect would soon be charged to court according to a statement signed by the former Commissioner of Edo State Police, Foluso Adebanjo.